United Nations Officially Recognizes Same-Sex Marriages

Something worth celebrating not only in the U.S. for the Fourth, but all across the globe came out of NYC late Thursday. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has announced that the world's top-level of government will recognize and provide equal benefits to same-sex legally-wed couples who work for the organization.

Under the new policy staff who have married a same-sex spouse in a jurisdiction will receive the same benefits and recognition as those in heterosexual marriages regardless of whether same-sex marriage is legal in their country of citizenship.

'Human rights are at the core of the mission of the United Nations,' he said.

'I am proud to stand for greater equality for all staff, and I call on all members of our UN family to unite in rejecting homophobia as discrimination that can never be tolerated at our workplace.'

UN-GLOBE, an LGBT group within the U.N., released a statement via president Hyung Hak Nam:

"With this new policy in place at the UN, I believe that the entire UN system will follow suit, if history is any guide. And if any agency, fund or programme still refuses to change, we will make sure they hear from us.

"This includes the UNJSPF, our pension fund. In fact, with this new policy in place at the UN, it is my hope that the pension fund will be under a lot of pressure to change its discriminatory policies towards staff. And we will be front and center advocating for change."